I probably make it Derian Hatcher from ‘02-’03 when he was a Norris finalist. He was a beast that year.

Might replace Ludwig or Robidas with Boucher from ‘07 when he had that ridiculous year. Gotta have Carbonneau in there, and it’s almost impossible to keep ’98 Verbeek out as well. Tough calls though.

And if you’re talking about a backup goalie, hard to imagine someone that could be better in that role than Roman Turek circa ’99.

So unless, by “vintage”, you’re thinking like his first season in Dallas (50 goals), I’d say it’s the elite Modano we’re accustomed to.

I actually do have Verbeek, as a scratch, so you can drop him into the lineup if need be. Likewise, Marshall is down in the minors and can be called up if you need him, as is Todd Harvey (who served a similar role).

That said, though, I think the main lineup still has some gritty players. With Neal, Morrow, Guerin, and Ott, you have some good physical guys that can also play a highly skilled game. Likewise, if you want a defensive forward, we have that too: Carbonneau, who is the epitome of that role. Only takes a moment to drop him in in stead of Ribeiro or someone else.

If there’s any major weakness in this team, it’s that the defensive corps might be a little slow, but there’s just not much that can be done about that; those guys were still some our best players, and if you leave them out, you have to start putting in second-tier defensemen to fill in the gaps. Anyway, Matty and Hatcher had to play against fast players back then too, and they seemed to do okay.

That said, though, I encourage everyone to make their own lineups. This is just my personal one, and I’d like to see other people’s interpretations of the Stars…unless mine really is so good that you can only think to make minor changes. ;-)

I actually did remember him (I can recite a lot of the ’99 roster from memory), but I chose not to include him for some reasons…

1) I like Ludwig better. Apparently everyone else does too; I’m not sure if he was really more defensively aware, but I imagine he was, since he was the defensive defenseman of defensive defenseman…he practically subbed as a goalie with those infamous pads, and had virtually no offensive output.

2) If Ludwig is taken for granted, there’s nobody else we can slip into the lineup. The top four are taken for granted; we already know they’re all getting onto this list somehow, so the question is which sixth defenseman you want. I think most people would agree that Robidas is the best new, non-‘99 defenseman we’ve had, so he gets in.

There is one more slot open, for an extra defenseman, but I decided to go with Norstrom, since his defensive angle is in line with Hatcher, Matvichuk, and Ludwig, and he was a great defenseman in the ’08 run. You could also make an argument for long-time Star Boucher.

I like Chambers all right, but I’m not sure you can argue for him above those two guys.

As far as Churla and Broten, the truth is that I don’t know them as well because I was too young when they played here. I do know a bit about their stats and performance, though… we’re excluding North Stars, though, that means that this is the Dallas version of Broten — who’s past his prime…and with Churla, well, he got traded, and I figure there was probably a good reason why. I just couldn’t fit them in the lineup, when we had all these other guys, and keep an all-time team.